The Lives of the Saints
1. VENERABLE THEOPHANES THE CONFESSOR
He was surnamed Sigrian after the place of Sigriane, where he was born. A kinsman of Emperor Leo the Isaurian and his son Copronymus. He possessed enormous wealth and splendor. But all this lost its value for Theophanes when Christ the Lord became king in his soul. He then resisted his own marriage, and when he was nonetheless compelled to marry, he succeeded in persuading his bride to live chastely as brother and sister. And as soon as his parents died, his wife went to one monastery while he went to another. His monastery was in the Sigrianean hills in the region of Cyzicus. Once glorious and wealthy, Theophanes lived in the monastery as the lowliest pauper. And all marveled at such a transformation in him. Having become renowned for his great faith, self-restraint, and wisdom, he was called to the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea, at which the veneration of icons was confirmed. On account of his great purity and chastity, God granted him the gift of wonderworking, so that he healed all manner of illness — especially madness and insanity. For all the sick and afflicted he prayed to God and aided them through his prayer. Only when he himself fell ill and suffered for a long time did he refuse to pray to God for his own recovery, but endured with thanksgiving. When the persecution of icons arose again from the wicked Leo the Armenian, Saint Theophanes was brought to Constantinople and cast into prison, where he spent two years in hardship, torment, and humiliation. The emperor then sent him into exile on the island of Samothrace — which he had foreseen beforehand in his spirit and told the jailers. But when he arrived on Samothrace, he lived only twenty-three more days and presented himself to his Lord and Creator, to receive the crown of glory he had earned.
2. VENERABLE SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN
This God-bearing and great Father of the Church was born in Galatia of Paphlagonia, educated in Constantinople, and enrolled among the courtiers of the emperors Basil and Constantine Porphyrogenitus. He left all for Christ's sake and withdrew to a monastery. He struggled under the guidance of the elder Symeon, then became abbot of the Monastery of Saint Mamas, and finally a hermit. He is the greatest theologian after Saint Gregory the Theologian. He felt grace in his heart. His words are true spiritual and theological revelations. He reposed in the year 1032. His relics are wonderworking.
3. SAINT GREGORY THE DIALOGIST, POPE OF ROME
The son of the senator Gordianus; he himself afterward became a senator and prefect of the city of Rome. But as soon as his father reposed, he gave himself to the spiritual life. From his great wealth he built six monasteries in Sicily and a seventh in Rome itself in honor of the Apostle Andrew, in which he himself was tonsured. Silvia, his mother, was also tonsured in a women's monastery. After the death of Pope Pelagius, Gregory was elected pope. He fled from that honor and authority and hid in the mountains and ravines, but the Lord revealed him to those searching for him by causing a pillar of fire to appear from earth to heaven at the place where Gregory was hiding. He was extraordinarily compassionate. He used all his income for shelters for the poor and for hospitality. He frequently invited poor people and served them at table. He was also occupied with writing useful books. The Dialogist, or Interlocutor, he is called because he wrote a book under that name, in which he set forth the virtues and miracles of Italian saints. He also composed the holy Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, which is celebrated on Wednesdays and Fridays of the Great Fast. His archdeacon Peter saw a dove flying above his head whenever he sat and wrote. He presented himself to the Lord in the year 604.
Hymn of Praise
VENERABLE THEOPHANES THE CONFESSOR
Leo the Armenian makes offers to Theophanes,
Offers him as much wealth as he desires,
Only that he sign his name
On the wicked list of the iconoclasts.
From prison Theophanes writes to him:
— I cannot please thee, O Emperor,
Nor be righteous before God and thee at once.
When I was young and pleasing to the world
I possessed immeasurable wealth;
I left it all, turned myself to God,
Gave everything away, fell into the desert.
Even in the desert I knew no hunger,
God feeds and sweetens me with Himself.
What dost thou offer me in my old age?
Dust that I scorned in my early youth!
Nothing, O Emperor, canst thou give me
That the Lord does not give me a hundredfold,
Except the torments I have long awaited —
The torments will separate me from the world
And unite me with the most beloved Lord.
Why dost thou make war upon the icons?
Is not Christ Himself as an icon —
As an icon of the Eternal Hypostasis,
As an icon of the Trinitarian omnipotence,
As an icon of the hidden God,
The hidden and the Unapproachable?
He will judge both thee and me.
Reign, O Emperor, but expect a change —
The world passes away, God alone endures.
He who is with God fears not the world.
“The world passes away, God alone endures. He who is with God fears not the world.”
Reflection
No one — not even the Lord God Himself — willingly instructs the proud. No one cares to give counsel to one who shouts that he already knows everything. To the meek are mysteries revealed, says the wise Sirach (3:19). And David again says that God guides the meek in truth and teaches the meek His way (Ps. 25:9). The proud man is he who wishes to teach everyone yet will not be taught by anyone; the meek man is he who does not desire to teach anyone yet desires unceasingly to be taught by anyone at all. The empty stalk holds its head high above the whole field, and the full stalk bows its head! O proud man, if somehow your guardian angel could lift the veil from your eyes and show you the boundless depth of all that you do not know, you would kneel before every man before whom you had been proud and whom you had despised, and cry out in lamentation: forgive, forgive! I know nothing! To the humble and devout it is often revealed even when they will die; while death takes the proud by surprise.
Saint Gregory the Dialogist tells of a certain Bishop Carpus who celebrated the Liturgy every day, and how someone from the other world once appeared to him and said: "Continue doing what you are doing, and in serving Me let not your feet grow weary, nor your hands grow weak. On the day of the Dormition of the Theotokos you shall come to Me, and I will give you your reward in My heavenly kingdom, together with all those for whom you have prayed at the services." A year later, on the day of the Dormition, Bishop Carpus celebrated the divine service, took leave of his clergy, and gave his spirit to God. And his face shone like the sun.
“To the meek are mysteries revealed. The empty stalk holds its head high above the whole field, and the full stalk bows its head!”
Contemplation
Contemplate the Lord Jesus before Pilate, namely:
1. How the Jews accuse Him before Pilate, and He answers nothing;
2. How He answers nothing to Pilate's questions either;
3. How the Lord is eloquent when it is necessary to defend men from the devil, from sin, from illness, from death — and silent when He is required to defend Himself, the defender of men, before men.
“The Lord is eloquent when it is necessary to defend men — and silent when He is required to defend Himself.”
Homily
again on the second coming of Christ
And before Him shall be gathered all nations (Matt. 25:32)
All nations shall be gathered before the Lord Jesus when He appears in His glory, surrounded by the holy angels, sitting upon the throne as Judge of all the living and the dead. All nations shall be gathered — all without exception. Not only the Jews who tormented Him, and not only the Christians who glorified Him, but also the pagans who neither knew Him nor acknowledged Him. For even if He did not appear to all nations, to each He sent someone or gave something for the knowledge of God's will and for salvation. Therefore all nations will be obliged to appear before Him for judgment.
Oh, what a fearful and majestic sight, when all peoples and all tribes of the earth — those that have been and those that are — are gathered before the Lord, brighter than many suns! What joy for the holy martyrs and confessors when they see how in that innumerable throng of peoples there is no longer a single tongue to deny the divinity of the Lord Jesus! But it will avail no one to acknowledge and confess the divinity of our great Lord at that hour and in that place, if he denied it on earth. There and then accounts are settled — nothing is gained or squandered. With whatever a man comes before the Lord, by that will he either be condemned or justified.
Now is the time to acknowledge the divinity of the Lord Jesus — now, when many deny it, and when it is held in doubt by many. Those who love the Lord and trust in all His words will do so easily. For when He says it, why should those who love Him struggle and doubt and deliberate?
O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us! To Thee be glory and praise now and forever. Amen.
“Now is the time to acknowledge the divinity of the Lord Jesus — now, when many deny it, and when it is held in doubt by many.”